20% of the minutes - more than two million votes - are still pending scrutiny, which has sparked demonstrations in various parts of the country.
The opposition leader of Venezuela, María Corina Machado, warned this Wednesday of "the cruel and repressive escalation" of the Venezuelan Government, after the controversial presidential elections, in which the National Electoral Council (CNE) ratified Nicolás Maduro as president.
20% of the minutes - more than two million votes - are still pending scrutiny, which has sparked demonstrations in various parts of the country.
"After the resounding and unappealable electoral victory that we Venezuelans achieved on July 28, the regime's response is murder, kidnapping and persecution. I alert the world about the cruel and repressive escalation of the regime, which to date has more than 177 arbitrary arrests, 11 forced disappearances and at least 16 murders in the last 48 hours," Machado said on his X account.
For Machado, "that is Maduro's criminal response to the Venezuelan people who took to the streets as a family, as a community, to defend their sovereign decision to be free."
According to various NGOs, in the context of the protests that began on Monday, 11 deaths were recorded until Tuesday afternoon, which today Machado raises to 16.
"These crimes will not go unpunished," said the opposition leader, who sent her "word of solidarity" to the "relatives of those murdered, to the prisoners, to those persecuted, to those injured for defending the electoral victory of July 28." .
AMLO VERSUS PETRO
Meanwhile, the Mexican Government said that it will not participate in the meeting of the Organization of American States (OAS) on the elections in Venezuela, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said this Wednesday (07/31/2024) during his daily press conference.
"We are not going to participate because we do not agree with the partial attitude of the OAS," López Obrador said. "Why are we going to a meeting like that? That is not serious, it is not responsible," he added, pointing out that Chancellor Alicia Bárcena would not participate in said meeting.
López Obrador questioned the OAS for its "interventionism" and said that "there is no evidence" about the alleged electoral fraud in Venezuela, in which Nicolás Maduro won his third term.
“Let's wait. "I believe that evidence has to be presented, the minutes, and I think that they should have minutes, even though they were carried out electronically, I believe that in the procedure there are minutes, there are records to know what happened," the president responded to questions. from the Efe agency during his morning conference.
Petro asks Maduro to publish the detailed vote count
On the other side, the Colombian president, Gustavo Petro, asked the Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro, this Wednesday to publish the detailed count of the votes after the weekend elections in which the electoral authorities declared Maduro the winner.
In a message published on his country and professional international oversight".
"We respectfully propose reaching an agreement between the government and the opposition that allows maximum respect for the force that lost the elections," he adds.
THE G7 REQUEST
The G7 Foreign Ministers asked the Venezuelan authorities this Wednesday (07/31/2024) to publish "detailed electoral results with total transparency" after Sunday's elections that gave outgoing president Nicolás Maduro the winner, amid allegations of fraud of the opposition.
"We call on the competent authorities to publish detailed electoral results with full transparency and ask those in charge of the electoral (process) to immediately share all information with the opposition and independent observers," the countries said in a joint statement. of the G7, made up of the United States, Canada, Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Japan and Italy, the latter with the rotating presidency of the group.
The G7 is also concerned about the situation in the country after the elections: "Reports from independent national and international observers have raised serious concerns about the announced results of the elections," it noted.
He also said he had suspicions "about the way the electoral process was carried out, especially with regard to irregularities and the lack of transparency in the final vote count."
